If one is to go by the recent news reports, the Indian military has effectively junked two flagship desi weapons platforms Arjun Main Battle Tank and Tejas Light Combat Aircraft.

What has triggered these reports are two developments, first, the Indian Army’s issue of preliminary tender last week for next-generation tanks called ‘Future Ready Combat Vehicles (FRCV)’ and the Indian Air Force’s strong pitch for a single engine fighter jets. These two instances have been taken as decisive examples of the Indian military’s clear preference for foreign equipment over their indigenous equivalents or rather outdated ‘equivalents’.

While a natural tendency would be to see these rejections as the failure of the ‘Make in India’ policy, one has to take a nuanced view of these developments. Read More…